Racing Shadows
by UnluckyAmulet
Summary: He was being tricked. He was almost certain he was being tricked. But what kind of man would he be, if he just let her run off when she was crying? Imadori/Ichijo.


Disclaimer:I do not own School Rumble, which I'm pretty sure surprises nobody.

Just a nice, fun oneshot, featuring my School Rumble OTP, Imadori x Ichijou. It's a shame there aren't more fics about these two- I love 'em! The fic is rated K+.

Enjoy!

* * *

><p>Imadori Kyosuuke, as a rule, didn't generally like to run. It just wasn't how he worked. He hated to do anything remotely athletic, after all. The repetition bored him. He could never be bothered. He had better things to do.<p>

But he was now.

Sprinting, actually.

"Ichijou?"

Ichijou, if she heard him, didn't answer. She just kept running, much to Imadori's annoyance. She was too fast. Much too fast. But he ran after her anyway, stubbornly insisting to himself that it was because he was curious more than anything. Anyway, there was nobody else. Nobody else to explain to him what the shouting meant, or why Ichijou was running _from _it. Or even what it all lead up to.

But he could at least admit that it wasn't the shouting that bothered him...

Why couldn't she just _slow down_?

Imadori's heart was pounding by this point, but he kept moving regardless, feet pounding the grass, his shadow stretched out like a giant alongside him. A little fact people didn't know about Imadori Kyosuuke; When he wanted something, he often went to great lengths to get it. Greater then you might expect, coming from a lazy slacker like him. But even Imadori had to exert himself sometimes, at least a little, to be taken seriously at all.

This was one of those times.

And, to his surprise, he found at that when he had a mind to, Imadori could actually run pretty fast. And his legs were longer then Ichijo's anyway. So it was only a matter of time before he finally caught up with her, his hand stretching out.

He only made the briefest contact with her shoulder, before she finally stopped and spun around. And though she did duck her head, he saw the tears anyway, glittering in the afternoon sunlight.

"I-Imadori-san!"

Blush, blush. If Imadori noticed her odd but normal-for-Ichijou behaviour, he disregarded it for the moment.

"I-chi-jou." Imadori said, sternly, slightly out of breath.

There was a slight pause.

"Y-yes?" asked Ichijou, eventually, growing slightly uncomfortable by Imadori's intense stare, which he managed to pull off without even really meaning to, but in this case, it might have been an advantage.

"You were crying," noted Imadori, somewhat redundantly. Ichijou blinked, a little too quickly.

"N-no, that was..."

She was surprisingly stubborn.

"Ichijou." repeated Imadori, as though he could somehow handle the situation better by saying her name. "Why?"

"I..."

Oh, crap. He just seemed to be making the situation worse. He really _hated_it when a girl cried. It made him feel bad, like it was his fault somehow. She wasn't doing it right now, but the point was, she had been. And now she looked like she wanted to do it again. But, surprisingly, it only strengthened his resolve that he wasn't leaving.

"I-it's just that..."

She looked at the floor. Imadori waited.

"They said I wasn't...pretty enough."

There was a silence. A bird chirped annoyingly overhead. Imadori had this look on his face like he was waiting for the punchline.

It didn't come.

"Not pretty enough..." repeated Imadori, slowly. Like he was testing the sound of the words. Ichijou sniffled.

"I don't know what I was thinking...I mean," mumbled Ichijou, blushing. "What do you think, Imadori-san?"

Imadori blinked.

"What are you talking about?" he asked her, tipping his head to one side. "Ichijou is Ichijou."

Another silence followed. Mercifully, this one was less awkward. Ichijou looked up at Imadori, mouth slightly open, as though she couldn't believe what he had just said, or was trying to persuade herself that she had only imagined it.

"Come on." Imadori said, impulsively, grabbing at her hand.

"Wh-what? Where are we going?" Ichijou squeaked, stumbling.

Imadori grinned at the athletic beauty.

"I want to show you something."

* * *

><p>"Um, Imadori-san?"<p>

Ichijou really had to stop being so damn cute. It was kind of distracting.

The two teens were standing in the less foresty area of the park, having walked the remaining way over the field. Stretched before them was a large pond, which was sparkling blue as it reflected the beautiful spring sky. A few ducks swam past them, and Ichijou squealed slightly at the cuteness of the sight of a trail of ducklings following their mother.

"Huh," Imadori said, more to himself then her.

"What is it, Imadori-san?" Ichijou asked, turning to look at the blonde.

"That kinda reminds me of that one story. You know. The one with the duckling and the swans and stuff?"

"Oh, you mean The Ugly Duckling?"

"Yeah." he said, then looked at her. "Only, for that story to apply, I guess you have to be ugly in the first place, right?"

Ichijou let out a small squeak as the implications of what Imadori said hit her. Her face flushed, which she stubbornly insisted to herself was merely the heat from the sun and nothing else. She didn't quite buy that, though. She fiddled with the tiny braid in her hair.

"U-um," Ichijou blurted, desperate for something to break the sudden silence, as Imadori stared at her. "Wh-what was it you wanted to show me, Imadori-san?"

"Oh yeah. C'mere."

Hesitant, she did. Imadori pointed to the surface of the pond.

"See that?"

Ichijou Karen stared. All she could see was the water, the occasional bird swimming across it, and their reflections.

"See what?" she asked, leaning forwards slightly, frowning.

"That," Imadori explained, nodding downwards. "Us."

_Us?_

"You really think _that_," Imadori went on, jabbing a finger at the water's surface. "Is anything less than amazing, Ichijou?"

"I- well, um, that is-" Ichijou began, shifting from foot to foot with embarrassment, when her foot found a clump of drying water-weeds on the concrete, and she suddenly lurched forward as her foot slipped, letting out a petrified little yell as the water loomed dangerously before her eyes, so she clamped them shut, waiting for the splash...

It didn't come.

"Huh?"

Ichijou opened her eyes. In her reflection, she saw Imadori standing behind her, one hand wrapped around her waist, his mouth set in an amused expression. Ichijou felt a strange tingling sensation, like pins and needles, but a hundred times warmer and more pleasant. Dimly, she wondered if he could feel that, too.

The two of them stood there for what felt like a century, staring at their reflections staring back at them, the rest of the world fading away in that moment, with just the two of them, the sun, the sky, and each other in the water. Then, Imadori laughed, softly.

"I wonder what Coach would say if he saw the way I was running earlier?" he mused. "Pain in the ass'd probably say I should do track or something..."

He grinned.

"But it was nothing compared to how fast you were going, Ichijou. It was like you were...flying. It was pretty cool, actually."

"I didn't really notice..." she admitted, a little bashfully.

Imadori then put his other hand on Ichijou's waist and turned her so she was facing him. He had a lazy smile on his face that made her heart skip a beat.

"Well, you know what they say," He told her. "Seeing is believing."

Ichijou smiled. Finally.

"That's better," Imadori told Ichjou, feeling so full of relief he felt like he was being filled with helium, that any second he might float away. "You...I don't like it when you cry, you know?"

Ichijou blinked.

Imadori laughed at her puzzled expression, then glanced at the city in the distance, He had forgotten he'd been headed there.

"Race you back, Ichijou." He said, looking back at her with a lazy-eyed, teasing look.

Ichijou grinned.

"Deal!"

And they took off- feet pounding on the green, green grass as they ran, with their shadows running right alongside them, side by side.


End file.
